[kasey_junk]

The issue with paid trials are 2 fold:

If you are talking about short term trials many devs are bound by anti-moonlighting employment agreements that either outright bar working for someone else or require notification.

For long term trials you severely limit your hiring pool because that is effect temp-to-hire which many devs simply will not do.

[alain94040]

The first issue could be fixed legally. Just like California makes non-compete in-enforceable, it could pass a law that says short-term moonlighting can’t be in employment agreements. This way, you could take a week off from your current job, and actually work for a week for an employer that you are interested in. Fully paid.

[nameisname]

This would mean you would have to work a ton of extra, waste significantly more time than a day with the current interviews approaches, or be "interview hopping" with no steady job for an extended period if nobody hired you. Which could have gaps between "moonlight" sessions. Which could mean you end up broke.

[kasey_junk]

I’m not a legal expert in this but am fairly certain it already is illegal in California.

I was not working in an environment that could only hire California developers. If I were I might more seriously consider the option.

That said, I’m guessing you’d still get people who would balk at moonlighting even if it was allowed.

[roland35]

This would maybe work if every employer did it and it was easy to pick up a new trial quickly, but the reality is that the time from application to hire can be weeks if not months at most companies!

No way I could risk having to find another job if the trial went poorly.